My mental circus, inside and out.

Emma just watched all of Showtime's  first season of The Tudors, so now she is thnking of all the iterations of King Henry VIII's wives and all the versions of King Henry VIII from Laughton to Burton and beyond.  For our purposes, the key figure here is Catherine, the senior wife whom Henry leaves for Anne Boleyn, launching a chain of momentous events.   Catherine has received short-shrift in most of these interpretations, passed quickly over for the glamorous, sexy, younger and excitingly threatened Anne Boleyn.  Catherine is portrayed as plain, old and boringly pious: no wonder Henry, the passionate  "young lion,"  would leave her, all perfectly understandable.  And how many times has this been repeated in account after account. She receives somewhat better treatment in the Showtime version.  Still portrayed as pious with her sole reason for existence to "fill her womb" and pursue her man,  she at least has moments of dignity and intelligence.  In many ways, she comes off as more honest and morally superior to Anne Boleyn, and to Henry himself, thus getting our sympathy vote.   Part of the reason is that Maria Doyle Kennedy's acting is superior to both Jonathan Rhys Myers as Henry and Natalie Dormer as Anne.  Of course, this is a British production, so despite its gestures to Hollywood style, it can still treat a figure like Catherine well.

Posted by: EmmaPele at January 11, 2008 18:49 | link | comments (1)

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#1  12 January 2008 - 03:06

 

have this in my netflix queue to see. should be interesting.

excellent example of the tossing over of older women past. and the reproduction biz again of course -- all supposedly for the sake of a male heir. at least they don't demonize her -- as they tend to -- but i think making her out to be a shrew has been more really to do with the catholic thing in the midst of the protestant reformation. and also legitimizing the end result -- the great "virgin queen" of course.

limine

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